


June Bride

by Katseester



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 11:03:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5414429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katseester/pseuds/Katseester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tanuma stumbles into a plot to resurrect an old, dead king, and Natsume is somehow at the centre of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	June Bride

**Author's Note:**

> Watching Natsume Yuujinchou was an intensely emotional experience for me and I spent an entire night reading the manga after finishing the fourth season.
> 
> There's enough material for another season, _and_ a lot of good Tanuma chapters, so where is it? Where's the new season?

Tanuma did not expect to be caught up in a life-or-death plot involving a dead king, his best friend, and an uncooperative forest when he woke up that morning. If he'd been paying attention he might have had the foresight to realize something was amiss. But he hadn't.

The first clue was that Nanatsuji still had fresh buns in stock when he passed by on his way to school, when normally they were all out by this time thanks to Natsume's overweight cat. He bought a couple to eat during lunch.

The second clue was that Natsume was absent from school.

The third clue was that on his way home the forest became still and quiet around him, the only noise the soft thud of his footsteps.

By this point it was already too late.

He stopped walking, and the absence of trilling birdcalls seemed more eerie than it had any reason to.

Just as he was thinking that he should turn back and find a different route home, something burst out of the underbrush in front of him, nearly scaring him to death. He jumped back, yelling in surprise at the lump of white that was suddenly before him, until it rose to its feet and he could see what it was.

It was a girl.

She wore a white kimono, slightly dirtied at the hem and knees where she had fallen in front of Tanuma. An ornate mask carved to resemble a doe obscured her face, and attached to it was a veil adorned with flowers. It fell gracefully over her head and around her shoulders, and when she moved to adjust her obi, her sleeves fell back and Tanuma could see her wrists were slender and delicate.

"Excuse me," he said, unsure if what he was seeing was real, wondering if he'd stumbled into the youkai world by accident, and she jumped, snapping her head toward him. Her veil flowed in a streaming arc behind the movement.

"Oh no," she said, slightly muffled behind the mask, and her voice was decidedly male, and very much sounded like Natsume.

"Natsume?" Tanuma asked, more confused than ever.

"Um," Natsume replied. "I can explain."

Just then, something large and round bounded from the underbrush where Natsume had emerged just moments prior, bowling into Natsume and knocking him over again. The mask and veil slipped from his head, and when he rose again, mask cradled in one arm, Ponta in the other, Tanuma could see that someone had applied white powder to his face, red to his lips, rouge to his cheeks, and dark lining to his eyes and brows. He looked very elegant.

"What are you doing, just standing there gawking at each other? Do you want them to eat you? Move!" Ponta was yelling.

The trees surrounding them seemed to rustle ominously, and Natsume's eyes darted around nervously. "We have to get out of here," he said, adjusting the mask back over his face, and he grabbed Tanuma's wrist as he swept past. He pulled Tanuma into the forest, and they ran.

They ran for what seemed like ages, ducking under branches and avoiding hidden dips in the ground. Every so often Natsume would abruptly halt for a moment before changing direction, and Tanuma was so turned around he knew he wouldn't be able to find his way home without assistance.

Natsume didn't let go of Tanuma's wrist, tight grip turning his knuckles white.

"There!" Ponta finally yelled from Natsume's other side. "Head for that shrine! They won't be able to sense you in there!"

They burst unceremoniously into the shrine, and once the doors were closed behind them they fell to their knees, gasping for breath. Ponta jumped from Natsume's arm before could be thrown to the floor.

"What - is going - on?" Tanuma coughed. "Why - did we have - to run?"

"Natsume got himself caught up in another stupid scheme run by lowlifes," Ponta huffed. "Honestly, I can't turn my back on him for one second. How many times have you been kidnapped now? Huh? Huh?!"

"You're supposed to protect me from that kind of stuff, you slacker!" Natsume retorted, tearing the mask from his face and throwing it at Ponta. "If you hadn't gone looking for that - that tree that spouted sake or _whatever_ it was you were looking for, this wouldn't have happened!"

Tanuma had never seen Natsume so fed up with anything before. It was kind of cute.

"Wait, be quiet!" Ponta hissed, and Natsume fell silent. Tanuma was about to ask _why_ , but then he heard it, a low rustling in the forest around them that could be mistaken for dozens of pairs of feet scurrying this way and that, as though looking for something.

They stayed quiet in the small shrine as seconds stretched into minutes, and still that disquieting sound surrounded them. If Tanuma concentrated he could almost hear voices calling to and fro, shouting questions and demands and searching calls.

Eventually the rustling faded, and Tanuma hazarded a guess that the search party had moved on.

Natsume breathed a sigh of relief, and his shoulders sagged as the tension ebbed from him. "We should wait here for a little while longer, just to be safe," he said, leaning back on his hands. The collar of his kimono shifted with the movement, pulling back over his pale skin, and Tanuma averted his gaze, embarrassed.

"So this is why you weren't in school today?" he asked, studying the grain of wood on the floor beside him. "You got kidnapped by youkai?"

Natsume's breath caught in his throat, but only for a moment, and he let it out in a shaky sigh. "Yeah. They...wanted to use me in a blood ritual to resurrect some old king."

Tanuma's heart stuttered unevenly at the words _blood ritual_. "You were going to be used as a _sacrifice_?" he asked, panicked. Tanuma didn't know what was more unnerving: the fact that Natsume was almost used in a blood ritual, or the blasé way in which Natsume brushed it off.

"Kind of," Natsume said. "They needed my blood, but not all of it. Just a little bit, look." He held out his hand, and Tanuma could see a smudge of red on the tip of his index finger. "My blood didn't actually _touch_ the diagram though, or I would've been in trouble."

"It's a good thing I showed up when I did," Ponta bragged, situating himself comfortably between the two boys. "If they found out Natsume couldn’t revive their king they probably would have killed him."

"Yeah, and you just helped so much," Natsume said sarcastically, pulling at Ponta's cheeks.

"Wha' wah tha'?" Ponta demanded, bristling. He pulled himself from Natsume's grip. "You think I did an inadequate job? Ingrate! Lowborn! Not fit for kitty litter!"

"For a high-ranking youkai, you sure let yourself get incapacitated easily," Natsume argued, and the conversation deteriorated into squabbling again.

"If you want to wash my fur out, be my guest!" Ponta challenged, pointing with his stubby forelegs at his head. Tanuma noticed something black and sticky-looking daubed into the fur at his crown. "Try doing that when twenty youkai are trying to kill you, why don't you! Yes, let me just take a saunter down to the river while my charge is being violated by - "

"Enough!" Natsume shouted, smacking Ponta away from his face. "Sorry," he said to Tanuma, sheepish. "We managed to stop the ritual, but the youkai weren't very happy about that, so we had to run. That's when I bumped into you, and, well..."

"So the youkai needed you for a ritual to resurrect a dead king. And the costume is for...?" Tanuma probed, despite his better judgment.

Natsume's face flushed beneath the makeup. "That's - "

Ponta guffawed. "Those stupid youkai wanted to marry Natsume to the old king! How dumb can you get?"

"Nyanko-sensei!" Natsume admonished.

Tanuma blinked. "They wanted to - to marry you to the thing they were reviving?" he asked blankly. "The king?"

"Yes," Natsume muttered, red-faced and embarrassed. "I was...chosen to be the king's bride." He bit his lip, clearly not intent on divulging anything further down that line of thought.

"His bride? But you're - not a girl," Tanuma said, uncomprehending.

 Ponta scoffed. "Youkai don't have a good sense for differentiating between human genders," he explained. "The ritual only works with a virgin human girl with high spiritual power, and they mistook Natsume for his grandmother again."

Tanuma felt the heat rising to his cheeks. "Again?" he asked, trying to ignore the _virgin_ part of that explanation. "Do youkai usually confuse you for a girl?"

"You wouldn't believe how many times they have," Ponta sniffed. "It's tiring, honestly, explaining that this idiot isn't his grandmother every day."

"Oh, like you're the one that has to explain," Natsume said, face now akin to a tomato in colour. "A-anyway, it should be safe to leave now, shouldn't it?"

"Hmm, probably," Ponta replied.

Natsume opened the door and peered outside. "I don't see anything," he said, turning back to them. "Let's go."

"Oh," Tanuma said absently, and Natsume paused. Without thinking, Tanuma leaned over and wiped at the skin just below Natsume's lip. His thumb came back smeared with white and red.

"What - " Natsume spluttered, raising a hand to his mouth.

"It was smudged," Tanuma explained, embarrassed. "Sorry. I made it worse."

"No, it's...it's ok." Natsume pressed a knuckle to his mouth in contemplation, smudging the makeup further. Tanuma decided not to comment on it.

"If you two are done," Ponta interrupted. "We should find some water so I can wash this infernal seal off."

"Right," Natsume said, turning away from Tanuma, much to his relief. He scooped up his mask and they left the shrine.

They wandered for a short while, trying to get their bearings, but then Natsume seemed to recognize where they were and lead them back to a path.

"If I'm remembering correctly, there's a well a little ways in that direction," Natsume murmured. "And if we keep going we'll be back on the main road."

The well was small, but its water was clear, and Tanuma scrubbed at Ponta's head while Natsume washed his makeup off.

"Ponta said you get kidnapped by youkai a lot," Tanuma pondered. "Do things like that...does that happen often to you?"

He knew that Natsume often had dealings with the youkai, but being kidnapped - and frequently, according to Ponta - wasn't something he had considered. Just how much did he not know about his friend?

Natsume finished cleaning off the last of the makeup before he answered. "Yes," he said. "I get dragged into these kinds of things a lot, though I'm not usually the one being married." He smiled wryly at Tanuma. "Sometimes they threaten to hurt my family and my friends if I don't help them, but this time I was just careless. I stumbled right into their trap."

Tanuma felt a twist in his gut at that. He couldn't imagine feeling so trapped - forced to help something that had no qualms with hurting those dearest to you.

"I had no idea," he murmured, and Natsume shrugged.

"It's fine. I can usually satisfy them and make them leave me alone. But something about this...it's making me uneasy. We got away, but I don't like that there's..." he trailed off, lost in thought, and Tanuma waited for him to continue. "There's still the chance that this old youkai king could be resurrected. We got lucky that I'm not a girl, but if they happen to find someone matching the requirements, it could be bad. I did some research before I got abducted and found out that he hates any being that doesn’t worship him – human or youkai. If he were to be revived, he might destroy the entire forest."

Ponta had waddled across the ledge of the well and was listening intently. "We didn't destroy the body," he supplied, and Tanuma gulped. "If we do that his minions should scatter and won't cause any more problems.. I would have done it earlier if they hadn't sealed my power, those brats. As it is, though, we have to go back. You should head home, unless you want to be eaten."

"I - " Tanuma began to protest, but Natsume was looking off to the side, somewhere past Tanuma's elbow, and that meant he agreed with Ponta.

"It's dangerous," Natsume said. "I was terrified while they were preparing the ritual. If anything were to happen to you...I wouldn't...I _couldn't_..." His fingers curled into a fist. "If we were trapped like we were with Omibashira I wouldn't tell you to stay back, but right now you have the option to go home and - and not be involved in this. Please."

Tanuma wanted to argue, wanted to tell Natsume he could be of use to him, he could help him, he could try to ease the burden, but he held his tongue.

 _Don't be selfish_ , Tanuma thought to himself. _Natsume's been doing this for a while. He's got a handle on it_.

"Okay," he said, and Natsume closed his eyes, visibly sagging in relief.

"I'll walk you home, at least," Natsume offered. He led Tanuma through the trees, but when it became apparent the forest wasn't thinning he stopped, glancing around in confusion. "This is odd. The road should be around here, but it's..."

Just visible ahead of them was the same well they had just left.

Ponta sauntered up behind them. "It seems we've gotten ourselves ensnared in his domain," he growled. "Of all the cheeky little - I'm going to really let those annoying lowlifes have it!"

Natsume sighed, bringing a hand to his forehead. "I can't believe this. It looks like we won't be able to leave until we destroy its body," he explained, turning to Tanuma. "We'll just keep wandering in circles until we tire ourselves out."

"Like with..."

"Omibashira, yes." Natsume frowned, deep in thought. "I can't...just leave you here," he finally said. "Getting split up in a domain like this would be a bad idea. But I..."

"If I'm stuck here I could at least help you," Tanuma suggested, and when Natsume didn't protest he took that as implicit permission. "This king's minions are out searching for you right now so not a lot of them will be around the body, right?"

"Probably," Ponta said. "I can destroy the body easily if someone distracts the weak ones away from it."

"If I pretend like I'm stealing away his bride they should come after us," Tanuma said. "Then, while we lead them on a chase Ponta can get rid of the body."

"And after that I'll come rescue you two, since it's obvious you can't deal with the pesky ones by yourselves," Ponta finished. "Decent plan, weakling. I'm actually impressed."

"You won't be able to see them, but if you listen to my directions we should be fine," Natsume said, but he didn't look happy with this arrangement.

"Well, if we're playing the part of an eloping couple I just have to hold you hand," Tanuma joked. "That way we won't be separated."

Natsume laughed weakly, but he seemed less ill at ease after that.

The journey back to where they came from was long and frustrating. More than once they found themselves back at the well. Natsume tripped over the hem of his kimono a couple times, but Tanuma caught his arm before he could fall.

Finally, something seemed different about the surrounding forest. Natsume picked up on it as well, quickening his pace.

"It's just up ahead," Natsume said quietly, and Tanuma could feel something different in the air around them even if he couldn't see any changes. They crouched behind a bush at the fringe of a small clearing. "There's eight of them protecting the body. When I say run, go as fast as you can. If we get separated, don't slow down until Nyanko-sensei finds you. He shouldn't take too long destroying the body."

Tanuma nodded, and Natsume slipped the doe mask over his face.

Steeling himself, he grabbed Natsume's hand and brought him around the bush, into the clearing.

"Hey!" he yelled to nothing, and Natsume tensed up beside him. He figured that meant he had their attention. He raised his and Natsume's linked hands high above their heads. "I have your king's bride, and I'm not giving her up! I'm going to marry her myself!"

He thought he saw the shadows before him move, but he couldn't be sure. The wind picked up around them, whistling through the leaves.

"Run," Natsume breathed beside him, grip tight on Tanuma's hand. "Run!"

Tanuma ran. He pulled Natsume along behind him, turning left or right whenever Natsume shouted the direction to him.

Suddenly, Natsume's grip on his hand loosened, and then disappeared. Tanuma stumbled to a halt, turning, and just had time to see Natsume on the ground a little ways behind before he was knocked onto his back by something invisible.

He thought he heard it hissing into his ear, thought he could make out words like _impudent_ and _kill_ and _foolish_ , but whatever it was that had knocked him over was sitting on his chest, and something was pressed painfully against his windpipe, cutting off his breath and making it hard to muster the concentration he would need to discern such words.

"Get off of him!" he could hear Natsume screaming. "Tanuma! _Tanuma_!"

His vision was starting to fade into black spots, and he thought it was stupid of him to have suggested this plan at all, but then a flash of bright light illuminated the area and the pressure on his throat and chest evaporated. He rolled over, coughing, and was vaguely aware of Natsume at his side, rubbing his back as he struggled to catch his breath.

Ponta's voice echoed from somewhere behind them. "Geez, you two couldn't even hold them off for five minutes? Pathetic."

"I thought I told you to keep running no matter what," Natsume said, suppressed voice carrying both frustration and anger. Tears pooled in the corners of his eyes and spilled onto his cheeks. "It was trying to kill you and I - I couldn't do anything!"

"I'm okay," Tanuma said weakly, pulling himself into a sitting position.

"You nearly died!" Natsume shouted. "You almost..."

He lowered his forehead onto Tanuma's shoulder. His hands on Tanuma's arms were trembling. "I was terrified. They had me pinned and I couldn't get to you. I thought I'd - lose you - "

Shame burned in Tanuma's gut. "I'm sorry," he said, and he could feel tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. "I didn't mean to - I always mess up, don't I?"

When Natsume's hand had disappeared from his own he hadn't even thought to keep running. Those things wouldn't have hurt Natsume, at least until they found out he couldn't resurrect their dead king.

"I'm not strong enough to protect the people who matter to me yet," Natsume said. "Until I am...I have to be alone..."

Tanuma closed his eyes. "Let's go back to my place. You can borrow some of my clothes."

Natsume nodded into his shoulder, but didn’t say anything.

"I destroyed the body and got Natsume's bag back, not that anyone cares," Ponta complained, and Natsume pulled back from Tanuma just far enough to throw his mask at the round cat again.

\---

They were able to avoid Tanuma's dad on the way in, and Tanuma found some things he thought would be in Natsume's size.

"I'll be downstairs getting some food," Tanuma said, and left him to it.

Natsume joined him on the veranda a few minutes later. Tanuma's clothes were a bit big on him, and the collar of his shirt sagged.

"Sorry for freaking out on you," he said, subdued, and Tanuma shook his head.

"It's okay. What do you want to do with the kimono?"

Natsume stared ahead at what must have been the pond in the yard. "It's completely ruined now. Might as well throw it out."

"It's a shame though," Tanuma murmured absently. "It looked so nice."

Natsume let loose a puff of air that might have been laughter. "I'm glad you think so. Nyanko-sensei is going to tease me about it for at least a week." He sighed. "They ruined my school uniform, so...thanks for these." He plucked at the oversized shirt he was wearing.

"No problem. You want some?" Tanuma nudged the plate of buns he'd grabbed earlier toward Natsume, who took one. "Dad picked them up this morning, so they're fresh."

"Thanks. I'm starved," Natsume said, and then tore into the bun.

Something Natsume had said had been bugging him since they'd gotten home. Tanuma waited until he was done eating. "You don't have to be alone," he said, still trying to pick the words apart in his head. Natsume's gaze flicked over to him. "What you said earlier, about having to be alone until you were strong enough...you don't have to."

"I know," Natsume said, after a moment. "I shouldn't have said that. But sometimes, the thought of those things hurting the people I care for - it scares me to death. Sometimes I think it would be easier if I were still alone, but then I remember how happy everyone has made me and I can't just...forget all of that, because I'm scared.

"I want to get stronger. I have to protect what matters to me." Natsume let out a breath, and it was shaky with nerves. "You matter to me."

Tanuma's breath caught in his throat.

It could mean anything, those words, but Tanuma felt they didn't mean _just_ anything, just like how Natsume didn't mean _just_ anything to him. He raised a hand to Natsume's face, and when Natsume didn't recoil he leaned forward, and so did Natsume.

They kissed on the veranda, in front of the fish pond that only Natsume could see. Shimmering light and shadow played across Natsume's face, and Tanuma thought it was beautiful.


End file.
